Greaves View: Final Journey Of The Wolf
Final Journey Of The Wolf <Damos Crusade Campaign Greaves sat in the middle of an interrogation room, his canine claws clamped in handcuffs. A bright light bulb shining overhead, the only thing keeping the room lit. "What could they possibly want from me?" He asked himself. "They should have killed me by now. After all, I did abandon my group years ago. But they have yet to do anything. Why put me in here?" Greaves thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. He cringed as a familiar face stepped inside. "You've certainly hid your tracks rather well." Erika Damos commented, her frown filling Greaves with a fear that he had thought was long gone. "C-COMMANDER DAMOS!!" He sputtered. "How-? Why are you here!?" "Why are you so shocked to see me? After all it's public knowledge that I've been planet-side for the last couple of days on business." Erika bluntly stated, "If anything, I should be far more surprised to see you alive in one piece." She pulled up the chair on the other side of the table and sat down. "Seems you've changed dramatically, since last I saw you, or did you always have that snout? I can't quite recall." Regaining his composure, Greaves retorted, "No your memory is fine. I got this after fighting under your command." Greaves took notice of the differences in Erika's appearance. Her uniform bore far more medals than when he last saw it. Her face aged splendidly given the years, and had obtained scars that actually seemed to enhance her beauty somehow. Her wings were still as mighty and graceful as they ever were. "Seems like you've had a successful Crusade, Commander." "Hardly as successful as it could have been, Mr. Fenrir." Erika shrugged. "Now stop with the flattery. We are here to talk about you. After all, you are under trial for committing desertion. Which brings several questions up to mind. What happened to you in your last mission with us? Why have you been hiding here when you should have been fighting in the Crusade? How have you escaped detection for so long? Why do you have a snout now? And most importantly, what in the God Emperor's name have you been doing here!? I demand a full report, Greaves. Anything less will earn you a trip to our top interrogator; and believe me, what he is capable of doing makes me look like a pushover in comparison." Greaves sighed. "Of course." He muttered. He rubbed his eyes, then said to Erika. "Before I get to that, I want to know something, if you don't mind me asking: You could have just handed me over to your interrogator in the first place, or anyone for that matter, why question me yourself? You must have a hundred things to do, and something like this would only slow you down. Why see me?" "Do you prefer the interrogator, Greaves?" Erika replied. To which Greaves shook his head. "If you must know, Greaves, I've been surrounded by idiot politicians, and underlings for longer than I would like. I need to take a long over due, and well deserved vacation: And what can be a better way to start it off, than by grilling an insubordinate hound?" Greaves shivered "Now it's your turn. Answer all of my questions. And do try to make it as long and riveting as you can. Who knows, tell a good story and maybe I'll only lock you up for the rest of your life." Battle Against Tzeentch Greaves stared at Erika Damos for a few seconds before sighing and starting his tale. "It all started during the Tzeentch cult invasion that occurred on the planet I was born on. Those despicable, insane people made monsters out of me and my family. After I escaped, I learned how to survive on my own, free from discrimination; and when I was conscripted into the Damos army, I learned that I was never going to have a normal life so long as I was a monster. I decided, that if I was to be made a pawn of, I would make the most of it by exacting revenge on the Tzeentch followers. For a long time, I didn't find a trace of those sorcerers. Months went by, followed by years. I was starting to give up on ever slaughtering them. Then after nearly two decades of silence, they made a second attempt on expanding their army. Like before, the target was a newly colonized planet. Only this time, we just happened to be within range of the colony's emergency radio frequency, and the planet's vanguard was far stronger than the one on my planet. When I learned who the perpetrators were, my rage became rekindled." "I remember that part well enough. You were overly insistent on boarding the enemy fleet's mother ship." Erika interjected. "What I don't know, is what happened when you got your chance. I have several reports from the crew saying that you died from a psychic warp explosion or some nonsense of the like. Care to elaborate?" Greaves gave a weak chuckle. "If only I could Ms. Damos. I barely remember anything after that. Everything after I boarded the ship is just one giant blur. All I know is just one thing. I went face to face with the cult leader at the end, and won. I believe he was in the middle of trying to summon a greater demon of Tzeentch, but I don't quite know for certain. The only thing I do know, is that I had stabbed into him with my swords. One in the chest, the other in his forehead. Problem is, once that second sword sunk in, dark energy exploded from his head and enveloped me entirely.........." "And? What next?" Erika persisted. Greaves sighed again. "This is going to seem a little strange, but I had a dream when that happened. I was in a forest; only, instead of being green, it was blue and purple. In this dream, I was running from a pack of wolves. I ran as fast as my legs can go, but I couldn't get rid of them. Their teeth eventually found and bit into my flesh. I thought it was all over for me at that moment. I looked up, and saw clouds high in the sky, part. The sun broke through, and sunlight shone over my body. The wolves howled, and shrieked in pain. They released me, and shriveled into nothing. Looking around, I noticed that the forest was green as it should have been in the sunlight. When I woke up, I found that my mutations had been further modified by the sorcerer." Greaves pointed to his muzzle. "My face got a wolf's mouth and teeth. My hands developed claws, and my feet became lupine in appearance. As for the worshiper, he was a completely unrecognizable mass of flesh and bones. I pulled my blades out of his body and looked around. I found out that the ship had crashed into the planet. Don't know how I was still alive from the impact, I just knew I was alive. I moved to the outside of the ship, where the night sky greeted me. Once there, I just sat down. It hit me that I had succeeded in killing my tormentors. I felt anger that I had been further disfigured; joy and sadness in accomplishing my goal; and despair, for I was without a motive for my life. I must have sat there for hours on end. For the sun began to rise. As the it's rays touched my body, a remarkable change occurred. My body began shifting on its own. I looked down and saw my claws turn into human hands. My muzzle disappeared, as did my tail, even my ears reverted back to their true shape. Before I knew it, I was human again. In the days to come, I realized that every time the sun shone on my body, I reverted to my true self. And when the sun had disappeared, I became a wolf man once more." A New Life Erika Damos looked at Greaves in mild surprise. "Is that so?" She asked. Greaves nodded. "It only occurs whenever the sun is out and I'm outside. Otherwise I remain a wolf man. Every sunny day, I'm free to roam the Imperium streets as just another person. On other days, I just stay at my house: which happens to be a ways away from the rest of civilization." "You have a house? How did you pay for it?" Erika inquired. "I have a job as a witch hunter." Greaves replied. "Funny thing about that last mission. Turns out, there were plenty of survivors from the enemies' side. If you weren't in such a rush to continue your crusade, and conducted a thorough investigation, you would have known." "I'd watch my tone if I were you, wolf." Erika interjected in annoyance "Sorry." Erika spoke up. "That answers four of my questions. I still need to know why you never contacted us. Even if you were left on this planet by accident, you could have easily walked straight up to the mayor's building and demanded to get in contact with us. It may have taken some time, but you would have been picked up nonetheless. Instead, you knowingly stayed quiet, and pursued the remnants of a broken army. Why?" Greaves took a deep breath. "I doubt you could understand me Commander Damos. For most of my life, I never had a choice on what to do over my life. I was subjugated as a boy, and was forced to fight for someone else ever since. I always resented your father's army for that. I stayed in your crusade for so long, only because it would have been suicide to run off on my own, and because it brought me the chance to kill my original oppressors. Staying behind to eliminate the rest of them was a choice that I needed to make. Not just to satisfy my need to see them dead, but gain control over my life." Erika Damos scoffed. "What a melodramatic sop you are. Do you really believe that any individual is free so long as our many enemies exist? Wake up to reality Greaves; Even the rich and powerful in the military can't just do as they please because they feel like it. We need to maintain this order even if it means sacrificing thousands, millions, and even billions of lives to do so." Greaves huffed in disagreement, but didn't raise any objections. "Well, I've answered your questions Commander Damos: Now..... are you going to kill me?" Secrets and Plots Silence perpetrated the room for a couple of minutes. Then Erika spoke up. "*Sigh* You know something Mr. Fenrir; I was under the impression that you could trust me. Do you really want me to hand you over to the interrogator to be tortured?" Greaves shifted in his chair, in alert. "What do you mean!? I answered all of your questions haven't I!?" Erika snapped at Greaves, pointing her finger at him, "I also demanded a complete report Fenrir; and yet you've withheld an important piece of information from us." "What information!?" Greaves asked incredulously. Erika slammed her fists on the table, denting it. "What else could I possibly mean!? I'm talking about the band of mutants that you have stowed away far into the forest!" Greaves stared at Erika in fear, then looked down and furrowed his brow. "So you knew about them." Erika continued. "Of course we knew! How do you think we found you!? Our forces spotted them a week ago, and then found you talking to them at 20:37 three days ago! Further investigation led us to find your exact location last night!" Greaves gulped. "They!........ They're just a bunch of innocent victims of the chaos worshipers! Survivors of their attacks! Those mutants just want to live in peace, so I found a place for them to do so! What's so wrong about that!!? Are you really that desperate to get your hands on as many slaves as possible!? Erika's face looked like it was about to explode. So stood up, wings completely opened, and shouted, "ARE YOU DENSE!!!!? THERE'S NOTHING HARMLESS ABOUT THEM!!!" Greaves stood up as well. "What are you going on about!!? They hardly have any weapons or armor!! So long as no one gives them any trouble, they are completely peaceful! Erika stared intensely at Greaves for what seemed like an eternity. Extreme anger shimmering beneath her face. She slowly sat down, and motioned for Greaves to do the same. Once they both calmed down, Erika continued talking. "You say that your mutants are harmless? Are you absolutely certain of that? Can you really say that they don't have weapons? Greaves Nodded slowly. "I'm their only link to the outside world. They only scrounged up a few weapons left from the dead worshipers. I gave them some small arms to protect themselves from the forest's inhabitants, but not enough firepower to do anything crazy. Also, It's not as if they can make more. They don't have the resources." Erika persisted in her questioning. "How do you know that for certain? You don't live with them, our scouts recovered that much. Can you truly say that you are in complete control of your mutants? Greaves tilted his head in confusion. "I don't control them Commander, they have a leader. They respect me, but they also envy my capability to appear human, and that I escaped from the sorcerers, so they limited my stay to night hours when I'm a wolf man. Anyways, their only communications device is a busted up transmitter located in the remnants of the worshiper's main ship. No way they could fix it and call someone else......!" Greaves stopped his line of thought and stared at Erika. "Wait, what did you mean that you know I didn't live with them?" Erika pushed aside the question. "So you don't control the mutants. They control themselves with an appointed leader." Greaves answered hastily, "Yes! And he's smart enough to know not to look for trouble! What are you driving at!? Erika motioned to the glass behind her. A moment later, a man stepped inside the room and handed Erika a pair of folders before leaving. "What I'm saying Greaves, is that you don't know your friends as well as you think you do." Erika handed one of the folders to Greaves. "Take a look. They're copies, but they haven't been edited in the slightest." As Greaves looked through the photos that were in the folder, his eyes widened with shock. "What the Hell!? What is this!?" Erika calmly stated, "Those are pictures of your mutant friends meeting with a heavily cloaked, unknown individual, who just so happens to be delivering crates filled to the brim with rocket launchers, assault rifles, flamethrowers and the like; With the last picture featuring you conversing with a pair of guards. Do you still claim that they are completely harmless? We have footage of a rally that they made, claiming that they are reading an assault on the nearby civilization." Greaves shook his head. "But this is impossible!! I never saw this!!......... I know they were acting aloof last time I saw them, but I never knew about this!! Erika retorted, "But didn't you just say that you were their only link to the outside world? How could you not know about this?" Greaves desperately pleaded to Erika, hands clasping his head. "I... don't... know! '''I don't keep tabs on them all the time! I only check up on them every other month! There's nothing to be gained from this for me! What reason would I have to hide anything else from you!? Erika crossed her arms and tilted back in her chair. "Let's see, I can think of '''three things that you are hiding from me that I know about, and if I know you're not being entirely truthful, how can I take you seriously? Greaves went still, and brought his head up slowly. A slight smirk and twinkle in Erika's eyes confirmed a fear inside him that he had ever since she mentioned the scouts. Greaves roared and for the second time, stood up, this time breaking his handcuffs, and slamming his Lupine claws unto the table, denting it further. Photos flew off the table from the force Greaves growled. "Leave them out of this! They have nothing to do with any of this! They're innocent of whatever the others are planning!!" Erika seemed to be amused by Greaves reaction. "Why so worked up all of a sudden Greaves? Have you forgotten the position you're in?" Greaves was having none of it. "I don't care. I don't care what happens to me. I don't care what happens to the other mutants. Just leave those three alone! They are all that I have left to care about!....................... They're my only family, DAMN IT!!" Erika smiled. "So you finally mention them..... Yes we know about your wife and kids. To be brutally honest, I was actually more surprised to learn about them than I was to learn about your survival. I never took you for a mutant family man, or a mutant cat person for that matter. She is a lioness, correct?" Erika motioned to Greaves to sit down. "You can relax Mr. Fenrir, we have no intention of laying a hand on them." Defeated, Greaves slowly sank and sat on the floor. "What could you possibly want from me?" "I'm glad you asked Mr. Fenrir." Erika Damos stated. She threw the other folder at him. "Open it." Greaves ripped the folder open and reached inside. What he took out confused him. "A badge?" Erika stood up and walked towards Greaves, speaking as she went. "As it stands right now, we do not know who this mystery person in the photos is. All we do know, is that he is the one manipulating the mutants. We must get closer in order to identify him, and who he works for, but that won't happen because we have very few mutants on hand who can interact with this group." Erika bent down next to Greaves, offering him a hand. "This is where you come in. Since the mutants already know you, it will be easy to get an inside man should you cooperate with us again. Your leave of absence from the Crusade will be written off as your willingness to complete your last mission with us by obeying the order to kill all the worshipers. Your family will be protected by the Imperium from threats; and should you succeed in this mission, you will be free to live your live as you have been doing so far. The only thing that will change is that you will have to take orders again from me every once in a while. This is my only offer to you. I suggest you take it." Greaves looked up at Erika. He knew very well that her offer was far from being all rainbows and sunshine. The Imperium's 'protection' could just be another way of saying taken hostage. Her orders would take him off world to fight some unknown threat. He would probably be away from home for months if not years. And yet, there was truly no other option that wouldn't be more in his favor. Hesitantly he accepted her terms and shook her hand. Erika pulled Greaves up. "Good boy. Now! You will meet up with the mutants tonight. You will take Narvaris with you, since he is the perfect mutant partner to undertake this mission with. Once there, you will get the mutants to trust you well enough to let you in on their plan. I want you to identify the mystery man by the time I leave at the end of the week." Greaves looked at Erika, puzzled. "Narvaris? Shouldn't he be in a mental institution by now with everything he's been through?" Erika brushed the question off. "Oh he's been to four institutions, and has a clean bill of health from all of them. He's fine. Now get moving." AFTERWORD Greaves succeeded in his mission. The man turned out to be a tech priest following the orders of an Arch Heretic by the name of RDM. He had promised the mutants the gift of mechanical bodies to replace their ugly, mutated flesh. Desperate to change, over half of the mutants had agreed to this. They were killed in an assault by the Damos army. Those that did not follow the tech priest were taken into custody. As for Greaves, he went on to serve the Damos family until his retirement. He was succeeded by his sons. One following in his footsteps as a Arch Militant. The other went on to become a Void-Master.